It seemed like I spent half of 2023 on the G. Greenpoint was among my most-visited neighborhoods for new restaurants, the Brooklyn-Queens crosstown my truncated chariot across a few miles of Kings County. The high concentration of promising premieres turned out mostly fine.
Glasserie opened about half a mile from the Greenpoint Avenue stop a decade earlier. In that year alone, the neighborhood was cheered in headlines like “Go Greenpoint!,” and jeered with descriptions like “charmingly desolate.” The restaurant got its share of accolades in any case, earning industry honors like Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition, and practical assets like returning customers. Back to the future, Glasserie proprietor Sara Conklin opened Radio Star about the same distance away in another direction on November 15, 2023. As at Glasserie, Asi Maman is chef.
Right near the water’s edge, cheery Radio Star has walls of windows and chirpy yellow walls. It also has the small tables and hard seats befitting the latter half of an operation described as “all-day;” more precisely “a Mediterranean-style diner with a 1940s vibe” in this case, per press materials. I wouldn’t worry about dressing for the decade, but the place is cute.
The day begins at 8am, with breakfast sandwiches, feta pastries and merguez in a blanket. Heartier sandwiches and a staff-favorite vegetarian chili join at lunch from 11-4, when dinner begins. The full bill of fare is deserving of those ubiquitous plush banquettes boasted about all over town, but service is pleasantly speedy enough to keep your sit bones from too much wear.
The complimentary bread is a mostly flavorless, chewy vehicle for condiment jars like the roasted garlic ($4), which could enliven anything. It’s satisfying to smoosh and, were the bread toasted, maybe, it would be a more successful effort. The merguez in a blanket ($13), still available from the earlier hours, nicely balances its lightly-spiced interior lamb sausage with its flaky exterior, though it is still wanting a condiment like the hot & sweet sauce sold separately for $2. The pistachio chicken croquettes’ ($14) texture lands a little harder, denser than a meatball and thin on flavor.
Though the olive oil-poached cod has a remarkably crisp exterior that fractures to a satiny center, Radio Star’s meats are its headliners. The kitchen here is gas-free, a move gathering more and more attention among home cooks and industry professionals alike.
“We have and will pay significantly more to operate a fully gas-free venue. The kitchen, heat, etc. are all-electric,” Conklin said via email a few months before opening. “This choice was a big one and makes a statement of turning away from fossil fuels, which is better for the environment as well as the health of staff working on premises."
Even National Grid devotees will agree that Radio Star’s heat source does right by its pig cheeks ($26) and smoked short ribs $28. The former, a pair of palm-sized cuts and served atop creamy labneh and gentle harissa are rich and impeccably tender, served with a few date halves warmed in dry-aged beef fat and concentrated fruity sweetness. The latter’s texture is terrific, too, splitting the difference between velvety and silken with its amplifying fat and thanks to an overnight marinade, several hours in the smoker and a finishing chicken stock braise.
The G train’s supposed to be suspended for some of this summer. Charming and far from desolate as the area is, there will be plenty of locals to fill the 40 seats inside around Radio Star’s large, central bar, not to mention the space for 62 more on the patio. And other chariots await.
Vitals
The Vibe: Cute, cozy and quick.
The Food: Mediterranean-influenced menus from morning until night, with standouts like merguez in a blanket, pork cheeks and short rib.
The Drinks: Cocktails, wine and beer.
Radio Star is located at 13 Greenpoint Avenue. It is open Sunday-Thursday from 8am-11pm and Friday and Saturday from 8am-12am.